Journey And Def Leppard In Ames, IA

The Def Leppard/Journey show in Ames was AWESOME! They each played the hits and were really appreciative of the fans. It was great seeing it so close to the stage and I wish I'd have had a zoom on my camera to get better pictures. Both bands are made up of great musicians and songwriters and it seemed as if everyone knew almost every single song played.

Jeff Scott Soto is still singing for Journey on this tour as he replaced Steve Augeri not long into it. I had thought by now that Steve would be healed and back on the road, but he may still be taking care of personal business. Regardless, Jeff is probably the perfect frontman for this tour anyway. Jeff has the rock n roll moves and attitude for Journey to successfully share this stage with Def Leppard. Jeff has a phenomenal voice and none of the past Journey singers were missed by this appreciative crowd. My humble opinion is that Journey may do well to hang on to Jeff as he does bring some life to this band and brings out the rock side. Of course, that could be sharing the stage with Def Leppard, too. One of the friends I went with was just blown away by this version of Journey and the other now needs to get their Greatest Hits CD because he didn't realize how many of these songs belong to Journey.

The set list was mostly the same songs as the St. Louis show, but in a different order.

National Anthem (Neil's Solo)
Stone In Love
Ask The Lonely
Wheel In The Sky
Keep On Runnin'
Edge Of The Blade
Who's Crying Now (Dean on vocals)
Chain Reaction (Apparently Joe Elliot said this was his favorite Journey song and convinced them to do it on this tour.)
Lights (Ended with a progression of Wind Cries Mary by Jimi Hendrix.)
Jon's Keyboard Solo
Open Arms (Dean on vocals)
Lovin' Touchin' Squeezin'
Escape
Dead Or Alive
Faithfully (Dean on vocals)
Don't Stop Believin'
Any Way You Want It

ENCORE
Separate Ways

Def Leppard came out and put on the full show. They had the ramp behind the drum kit, the stage riser with steps leading up to it, and made even better use of the video screen behind the band than Journey did. Journey had more of a psychedelic color thing going on with some video and still shots, but Def Leppard made use of some great graphics from their album artwork over the years. I wish my computer had some of that for a screen saver! The guys looked like they were having a great time and enjoyed bringing their hits and cover tunes to us. The set list is as follows:

Let's Get Rocked
Let It Go
Rock! Rock! (Till You Drop)
Bringin' On The Heartbreak
Foolin'
Hysteria
20th Century Boy
Rock On
Rocket
Photograph
Armageddon It
Animal
Rock Of Ages

ENCORE
Love Bites
Pour Some Sugar On Me

As you can see in comparison with the St. Louis show, it's mostly the same set. They put Let It Go and Rock! Rock! (Till You Drop) in place of Make Love Like A Man and Promises as well as substituting 20th Century Boy for No Matter What. It's all in the same order, though, with the same encore. I'm kind of wishing they'd drop Love Bites and do something different there, but it's not my show. It was great to hear some different songs at this show. Def Leppard never disappoints and always puts out the extra effort to give the fans what they crave.

Go see this tour. It's on the third leg and both bands have had nothing but positive reviews and results from this pairing.